A take on Solstice
As we battle through the wafts of Olbas oil and dodge the sneezes and jump past the ankle biting shopping bags hurling along the thin pavements of Totnes, it can be a bit difficult to summon up that "Christmas spirit" that Mariah Carey teases us with in her dulcet tones.
I'm also aware that a lot of people I know should really be hibernating. I mean really, away from everything and everyone. If you squint when you gaze in their direction you might have a brief glimpse of their true Bear-like nature, and get out the way swiftly.
As we sit on Persephone's steps at solstice, relinquishing our past selves to our collective history, reluctant to look back at the dark days and yet, knowing we've also had some pretty damn good times, a promise of whats to come in lighter days lingers ahead.
Other people
In the last month I've been listening to Krishna Das' talks on Spotify, (he's also on Audible btw if you don't do Spotify ) and this week he mentioned "Mudita", which is a Hindi word meaning Sympathetic joy. It is also a Bhavana; a well known Buddhist practice of development.
Mudita Bhavana- the development of sympathetic joy. ...Other peoples joy...
...Now we're getting somewhere, if I can develop and express my natural expression of happiness for someone else's joy, I think I may have found a Christmassy feeling..?
The budget
Racing for what I thought was the last post (it was a day later it turns out) I wanted to spend time wrapping these gifts and remembering each person, thinking how they might respond to my gift for them and hoping that was a nice response.. It did actually work. I had little warm glow moments which induce me to feel more generous too, although once back in the shops that generosity looks at price tags and gulps, I'm just not going to spend that!.. although with my extra day before the post office gives up on us, I'm in a hurry and just pop in on the card, overriding the budget with a swift flick of the wrist, mentally promising myself that I'll do all of this in November next year, like I usually do.
To gift or not to gift..
I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had a Christmassy moment when on opening a gift from someone who doesn't know you that well, a great aunt, or someone who had clearly taken the mulled-wine-whilst-shopping thing to another level.
You open the well sellotaped gift to find a thing which really makes you question your relationship.
I remember my mother-in-law receiving a Sweedish dustpan & brush from one of her sons, honestly, it was quite a scene, to watch her eyebrows disappear under her fringe in utter surprised feminist-bra-burning-rage disbelief. ( She now uses it regularly and thinks its great btw)
Food
But seriously, there is something sumptuous about this season. One of my sisters is a clear Solstice celebrator and has a big love of food. Food is her ikigai, (purpose in life) and I am lucky enough to pick up tips from her that blow Delia Smith out of the water. So our culinary delights this yuletide festive season start today! and will be where the budget is generous and the delights of local farms, gardens and traditional and strange recipes come together, I hope you have this in your lives too!
Reflections
Maybe there is a moment when we take stock. today feels like that day. Perhaps there will be a bit of quiet, a bit of time to oneself to recall the moments in the year that stood out, maybe some we might want to repeat, also remembering the value of remembering those not so great moments, the reminder to look out if signs show up to nudge you down that road again.. A curious phenomenon is that the recall of memory belongs to a part of the brain separate from long and short term memory, the hippocampus. Each time we recall something it is different, therefore becoming a creative expedition into the depths of your colourful mind.
Here are a few quotes from this term to colour in your Solstice.
"You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength." Marcus Auerlius
"You are not your thoughts; you are aware of your thoughts. You are not your emotions; you feel emotions. You are not your body; you look at it in the mirror and experience this world through its eyes and ears." M. Singer
"I am the taste in pure water, the radiance in the sun and moon, in all scriptures, the sacred word OM, the sound in silence, and virility in men.
The fragrance of the earth, the brilliance in fire, the life in all beings, and the purifying force in austerity.
... Good people worship [divinity] Arjuna, for four basic reasons; to be relieved of suffering, to Understand life, to rise from poverty, and just because they're wise already." Baghavad Gita, From the living Gita, ch7,sl8-17.
"It's no one else's job to understand us. However we imagined we'd like others to be is our own fantasy, that keeps us from embracing them as they are… so what if when we return Home, (for christmas) when our father asks which route we took, and how much the petrol was per litre, our mother asks if we're eating properly, we recognise that they are really saying "I love you"
J Eaton. P42
"You are what you deep driving desire is
As you desire is so as you will,
as you will is so is your deed
as your deed is so is your destiny"
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
"Practice becomes firmly grounded when well attended to for a long time, without break, and in all earnestness."
Chapter 1, verse 14, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
"When you own your own breath no one can steal your peace"
E.Walker, Sacred Threads.
Wishing you peace and good health through your festive times.
So much love
Katie
December 21st 2024